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Sagrada Reset
Episode 8

by Gabriella Ekens,

How would you rate episode 8 of
Sagrada Reset ?
Community score: 3.3

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that Kei “Woman Fixer” Asai is at it again. This three part arc culminates in him solving not one, but two different ladies' problems, all without a hint of distress or uncertainty on his part. Of course, he couldn't have done it without his loyal cadre of previously-fixed ladies and their helpful abilities. What would we do without Kei, most chivalrous of bland protagonists, savior of the fairer sex?

I'm being tongue-in-cheek, but these freelance lady therapist stories are getting real tiresome. The female lead in particular gets a raw deal this week. Haruki's only function is to reset time whenever Kei commands her to. When your heroine could be replaced by a button the hero keeps in his pocket, the show just might have lady problems. And when she says that she trusts the hero's commands over her own memories, well…

As a threat, wannabe villainess Eri Oka is eliminated pretty much at the start without much effort. Eri tries to brainwash Haruki so that she'll be loyal to her, but it turns out that Haruki follows Kei's commands even when they run contrary to her own experiences. (To be fair, in this case she is being manipulated, but she frames it like a general statement.) Murase busts out to corner Eri, and there's not much that the punk tween can do in that position. Following some reset shenanigans that tie into this episode's other plot, Eri gives up on her current effort to get one over on Boringface, but she swears to come back and annoy him another day. My guess is that she's now a frenemy variant in Kei's woman-based toolkit, all because she wants attention from some guy who spoke to her two years ago. Then again, she's still working for someone else, now that I think about it: that guy who ordered her to steal Sasano's photos. I guess that'll work its way into the plot again somehow. This won't be the last we'll see of Eri Oka's desire for validation.

The secondary plot, which concerns the witch, is more interesting. I could see it as being emotionally impactful in another show. Unfortunately, this is Sagrada Reset, where all emotionality registers as sleepwalking, and the characters must try to move as little as possible within shots.

So the witch's deal is that she wants to reunite with her boyfriend before she dies next week. The Bureau won't let her because they're a bunch of jerks, so she and her boyfriend, photo guy Sasano, hatch up a scheme to bust her out. They'll use Eri Oka – who'll try infiltrate the Bureau to see her own future one week before the witch's death – as their opportunity. Two episodes later, the chain of events culminates in Kei, Haruki and Murase working to break the witch out of forever jail. Sasano knew that this plan (which involves time travel, mind control, and the ability to phase through walls) would work since his girlfriend can see the future, and he can still commune with a version of her using his photograph visitation powers. (Don't think about the mechanics of this too hard – it's just time travel combined with future sight.) Some shenanigans and a reset later, they get the witch a photo of her room with the door open, which she uses to walk right out. In the next scene, she shows up in a cab at her boyfriend's place. The two reunite, although the witch stops to tell Kei a little something about Sumire's fate.

I found the witch's story somewhat more charming than Eri's material – mostly because it's a sad old person romance. That's a little better than the sad teen girl stuff, which usually ends with someone joining Kei's harem. At least the witch gets to leave when this is all over. It turns out that Sumire was supposed to be the witch's replacement, as an ability user who can see the future and the crux in the Bureau's system, which also means that Sumire most likely predicted her own death. She may have even killed herself to avoid a lifetime of imprisonment. Kei will get to verify all this next episode, when he enters a photo containing an image of Sumire. My bet is still that her soul is inside the rock. That's stupid in a funny way, but it's also been foreshadowed to hell and back.

I'll give this episode a slight grade bump for the sweet old people. Let's see if things get more interesting next week, when the show (presumably) starts spilling some overarching plot details.

Grade: C+

Sagrada Reset is currently streaming on Amazon's Anime Strike.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.


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